Flyers: Hartnell grateful after watching Peverley injury

Dallas’ Rich Peverly lines up for a face-off on Monday. Peverley will not play again this season after he collapsed on the bench during Monday’s game. One of Peverley’s doctors said at a news conference Wednesday that the 31-year-old will undergo a procedure that was originally planned for after the season. He was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat in training camp.(Photo: Sharon Ellman)

PHILADELPHIA – Scott Hartnell remembers being on the ice wondering what all the commotion was about.

In his fifth NHL season as a Nashville Predator, a 23-year-old Hartnell looked over at the Detroit Red Wings bench wondering what happened to Jiri Fischer, who had collapsed and gone into cardiac arrest.

That would be Fischer's last NHL game.

"That was an eye-opening event to say the least," Hartnell said. "To go over to the bench and a guy's just laying on his back, eyes rolled to the back of his head is pretty scary. You never want to see that happen. You just don't want to see it happen in any sport."

The game was suspended and played a couple months later. The same thing happened Monday night in Dallas when Rich Peverley, who was briefly a teammate of Hartnell's in his last season with the Preds, also collapsed.

Peverley, 31, is in his first season with the Stars and collapsed shortly after returning to the Dallas bench when his shift was finished. Trainers quickly carried him to the locker room where he was reportedly given one shock by a defibrillator and sent to the hospital.

"I got text messages that he was down or something happened and I immediately turned to watch the station and I'm texting buddies on the team," Hartnell said. "It's a big relief that he was back ticking again and making his way to the hospital all good."

The game between the Stars and Columbus Blue Jackets was postponed, just like the one Fischer nearly died in almost eight and a half years ago.

Former Flyer Jaromir Jagr, now with the New Jersey Devils, was a teammate of Peverley's in Boston. They sat next to each other in the Bruins' locker room for three months.

"When I saw the news, it's pretty scary stuff because I remember what happened in Russia," Jagr said. "I think the trainers and the doctors did a great job. They probably saved his life."

In 2008, Jagr was playing in Russia when his teammate, New York Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov, collapsed next to him when they were sitting on the bench. Jagr stood over Cherepanov, 19, and watched as trainers tried to figure out what to do.

"Back in Russia," Jagr said, "they weren't ready for that.

"When he collapses next to you, you don't think it can end like that. We finished the game. We didn't really know what happened. After the game, or with two or three minutes to go, they said they couldn't make him alive."

At age 42, Jagr is still in phenomenal shape. But Cherepanov, Fischer and Peverley are proof that cardiac problems can happen to anyone.

It is, unfortunately, not all that uncommon in hockey.

Back in 1998, Chris Pronger took a slapshot to the chest from Dmitri Mironov of the Detroit Red Wings. Pronger, 23 and in his fifth year in the league, collapsed and was unconscious for half a minute before the St. Louis Blues training staff could help him on the ice.

Hartnell had a scare a couple of seasons ago when his heart rate wouldn't go down at intermission of a preseason game against Detroit and the Flyers pulled him from the game. After the Flyers had him extensively checked out by a cardiologist, he returned to practice a couple days later.

All these situations have led the NHL to keep a close eye on its medical standards in every arena. The league revised its mandates last August. They include having a defibrillator on every home team's bench, a medical room that can serve as a triage area for both teams and that each team has at least two doctors at every home game, one of whom has to have completed hockey specific trauma management training.

In recent years, the NHL has also required the doctors to be seated within 50 feet of the players' bench so they can get there quickly for just a situation like Peverley's Monday night in Dallas.

Doctors announced Wednesday that Peverley will miss the remainder of the season and will have an additional heart procedure.

Without the NHL's mandates, who knows what could have happened Monday night?

"I don't know if mine was the same severity, but it is scary," said Hartnell, who hasn't had any issues since that game in 2011. "You only have one heart and when your time's up, your time's up. It is a scary thing. It's not a common occurrence, but guys end up getting diagnosed with something or having to do something with it. Obviously it's a cardiovascular sport. Your heart's always pumping and obviously you need it."